To the editor:
Re: "The next Yaletown?" Nov. 25.
Wow! I am blown away by Courier headlines. The next Yaletown? Marpole doesn't have a coffee shop or restaurant open past 10 p.m. except Denny's at Marine and Cambie. Safeway was awesome in the 1970s, but the declining number of residents isn't sufficient to support retailers. A nine-minute ride to Broadway on the Canada Line puts you in civilization. Two drug stores have long since vacated the area. A modest Safeway is the closest food retailer, except for Oakridge at 30 blocks away or shopping in Richmond, which is awesome despite a transit zone surcharge.
Marpole has grown to become a residential annex to Richmond. Your article comments that it is an immigrant-based community, and while that is true, it doesn't appear any different than any other community. There are Filipinos, Russians and Chinese.
But for the next three years, Marpole will have no grocery store until Safeway reopens. The fact that most people around the world want to move to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»means it will be highrises block after block. I liken Marpole to Burnaby's Sears area where there were three-storey walk-ups but now highrises block after block. There won't be much in the way of shopping because there is Oakridge and Marpole is too small an area. There is no vacant land. There won't be a casino because the River Rock is a 20-minute walk over the Oak Street Bridge.
The best part of Marpole is that the highrises will be modest in price because there is nothing in Marpole. The transfer station near Main Street and Marine can be smelled most of the time. And city won't be getting rid of that anytime soon, if at all. You can hear the airport traffic and sometimes smell aviation fuel in the air.
Adam Easton, Vancouver
